Amano Pasta: Italian Restaurant at Toronto’s Union Station

Amano Pasta is a popular Italian restaurant inside Toronto’s Union Station.

The popular restaurant opened in 2018 for Union Station’s long awaited makeover. Amano Pasta offers a quick service cafe for commuters hopping on a train. You’ll also find a fine dining room for those keen to linger over linguini.

Amano Pasta Opens Inside Union Station

To any of my Toronto friends who grew up like me in the burbs (Oakville ya’ll) you likely have a love/hate relationship with Union Station. Over the past several years Canada’s busiest transit hub (300,000 visitors rush through its historic halls each day), which connects commuters via TTC, Go Train, Via Rail, and UP Airport Express, has been undergoing an extensive facelift, which has made navigating its underbelly nothing short of a headache.

It looks like we can stop popping those painkillers as Union Station has slowly started to spring forward, and upon its completion will offer visitors to Canada’s largest metropolis a world-class destination all on its own. While Union Station’s longtime signature scent, the sweet waft of Cinnabon, has waved goodbye, once completed, the 170,000 square foot space will play home to more than 100 retailers, restaurants, and cultural events.

Last week I found myself chirping to a friend, “I have to run I’m heading to dinner at Union Station,” and almost caught myself off guard. Historically Torontonians would be less inclined to cheerfully announce their dinner plans at the city’s fast food infested train station. After skipping over to Amano Pasta, recently ranked as one of Toronto Life’s Best New Restaurants, it is clear that sentiment is choo-chooing away.

Step Inside Amano Pasta

At 5:30pm on a Thursday evening I step into Amano Pasta’s chic dining room and am greeted by a bustling restaurant. It’s located directly across from Union Station’s other buzzy eatery, Union Chicken. If the Italian restaurant’s success is any indication, it looks as though Toronto’s Union Station is on track to be Canada’s first transit hub that truly offers visitors an elevated experience.

Who hasn’t arrived at Union Station in the past to discover their train is canceled or delayed? In the past I’d loiter by treating myself to a Purdy’s Hedgehog or day old Mmmuffin. Union Stations new future looks bright for peckish commuters as craft cocktails and award winning restaurants with trendy interiors may just make it “the place” to meet friends for a feast in the city.

Amano Pasta offers a quick grab and go section by its main entrance featuring freshly baked Italian pastries, stellar espresso, sandwiches and take home hand-made pasta. There’s also a petite cocktail bar serving up Italian Riviera-inspired sippers including Amano’s take on Chelsea Handler’s fave Aperol Spritz.

Arancini with smoked cheese, pear, pancetta, rosemary and burnt honey

Amano Pasta Menu

Amano Pasta is brought to you by Chef Michael Angeloni, a graduate of Humber College’s Culinary Apprenticeship Program, who worked under the watchful eyes of Chef David Lee at Splendido, and Grant Van Gameren at The Black Hoof, before moving on to manage the kitchens at Yorkville’s L’Unita Enoteca and Parkdale’s Grand Electric.

Perfect pillows of Arancini arrive stuffed with molten smoked cheese and drizzled in honey while a plethora of inspirational pasta’s offer carb lovers a safe place to fulfill their fantasies. My suggestion is to bring a gaggle of friends and order every bowl, forks ready to sample through each of Chef Angeloni’s creations.

Crispy gnocchi are served on smear of creamy pureed pumpkin, rich mascarpone-filled tortelloni are topped with fragrant olives and roast lamb, and glistening ribbons of tagliatelle are topped with a red wine muddled beef shoulder and pork sausage ragu.

The show stopper is that bowl of Little Boats, stuffed with salumi and mortadella, topped with crunchy amaretti, and paired with pickled raisin and crispy kale. Leave room for fruit jelly and dulce de lech donuts which are best enjoyed dunked in a piping hot espresso macchiato.

Amano Pasta: Stuffed Squash with straciatella, miso brown butter, pomegranate, sleger greens and breadcrumbs — Amano Pasta: Stuffed Squash with straciatella, miso brown butter, pomegranate, greens and breadcrumbs

Amano Pasta: Appetizers

Marinated Olives
Marinated Pecorino Fresco
Pickled White Anchovies Crostini
Crispy Fried Smelts
Braised Artichokes and Stracciatella
Cheese Please: daily cheeses with seasons garnishes and crostini
Meat Lovers: seed to sausage salami, seasoned garnishes, crostini
Prosciutto: pomegranate, dates, grapefruit, buckwheat honey
Arancini: smoked provolone, pear, pancetta, burnt honey, rosemary
Grilled Octopus: red pepper, olive tapenade, capers, pickled raisins
Burrata: blood orange, beet relish, dill

Amano Pasta: Pope's Hat Tortelloni with mascarpone filling, roasted lamb, olives, fried rosemary — Amano Pasta: Pope’s Hat Tortelloni with mascarpone filling, roasted lamb, olives, fried rosemary

Amano Pasta: Pastas

Long and Flat (Tagliatelle): arugula pesto, roasted walnuts, pecorino
Long and Skinny (Spaghetti): pecorino, butter, black pepper
Fat Tubes (Rigatoni): pork and beef bolognese, pecorino, parsley
Back in Black (Campanelle): chanterelle and lobster mushrooms, buckwheat flour, gouda
The Radiators (Radiatore): white gulf shrimp, leeks, butter, old bay
Fluffy Pillow (Gnocchi): spicy lamb, romesco verde, rapini, pumpkin seeds, organic greens